Chapter 8: An officially licensed, first-release novel of unknown origin...

As the child of a fish demon, Yu Xiao can hear the voice of water.

So when the underground river, flowing beneath the surface, told Yu Xiao, who was fleeing for his life, that cultivators were chasing after him, he felt that he was about to die.

It's strange that Yu Xiao was protected so well by his uncles, senior brothers, and even his junior brother Ling Yue. Why did he have such a familiar feeling about "death"?

Oh, Bai Hongke consulted ancient books about Yu Xiao's strange physique and her occasional illogical words and actions, and finally concluded that Yu Xiao probably hadn't completely forgotten her memories from her previous life.

"Your soul comes from another world." Bai Hongke, who was usually cold and aloof, put down the ancient book with a somewhat sad expression. "A wanderer from another world, rejected by heaven and earth, perhaps this is the reason why you were born with the ethereal spiritual root."

The empty spiritual root turned Yu Xiao's dantian into a funnel, unable to retain any spiritual power entering his body, resulting in him being almost the same as an ordinary person without any spiritual root, even though he had a spiritual root.

In his early years, Yu Xiao refused to accept his fate and suffered countless hardships. However, at the age of fifteen, he finally accepted his fate and insisted on leaving the Wuji Sword Sect. He opened a calligraphy and painting shop in Wenjian City, which is located below the mountain gate, and lived alone. Now he is a mature, lazy person who loves to procrastinate on his manuscripts.

Even though salted fish are salty, they still have a will to survive, so Yu Xiao didn't look back and swam forward as fast as she could.

Just as the attack from behind was about to pierce through Yu Xiao's body.

Time stood still.

Spreading its fins, it lay flat and floated in the water, like a dead fish turned belly up. "System, do you know? I've been curious since I was a child about what happens to the characters in a novel after it's finished."

[Hello, transmigrator Yu Xiao. Congratulations on binding with the "Supporting Character's Comeback System" and awakening your past life memories...]

The futuristic fluorescent light illuminates the dark underground river.

The energy cluster called the System, with a mechanical and inorganic voice, showed Yu Xiao a story that was both familiar and unfamiliar to him.

"So, I used to be called Yu Xiao, from a place called Blue Star. After I died, I was reincarnated into a romance novel called 'The Legend of the Flying Fish,' where the female lead is my mother and the male lead is my father?"

The host's summary is correct.

"The storybook was completed not long ago." Yu Xiao stared at the screen displayed by the system, reading hundreds of lines at a glance. In no time, he had finished reading the hundreds of thousands of words of "The Legend of the Flying Fish".

He still spread his fins, lying flat and floating in the water, like a dead fish turned belly up. "System, do you know? I've been curious about what happens to the characters in a novel after it's finished."

Yu Xiao has now resolved this mystery, at the cost of becoming a character in the book.

"A poor scholar passed the imperial examination with top honors, married a wealthy heiress, and lived a sweet and happy life..."

"The foolish boy mastered unparalleled martial arts, became the leader of the martial arts world, and lived a happy life revered by all..."

All the stories that Yu Xuan'er read to young Yu Xiao would end with "the protagonist lives a happy life".

It wasn't until Yu Xiao had heard so many similar stories that she could guess the ending from the beginning that she started to feel like something was off.

Life is unpredictable; how can anyone live a happy life forever?

Finally, one day, little Yu Xiao, holding the embroidered ball Ling Yue had made for him, asked the question that had been weighing on his mind for a long time, "What happens after the protagonist lives a happy life?"

These words stunned Yu Xuan'er's already not-so-bright mind. Her expression turned distressed, and she began to tug at the stray hairs at her temples. "It's about living a happy life, and then, and then..."

Bai Hongke appeared just in time, giving Yu Xiao a light tap on the head, his expression serious. "Go play with Ling Yue. You're just too idle, that's why you're so disrespectful and talk nonsense, causing your mother worry!"

Recalling this, Yu Xiao couldn't help but complain, "So that's why those two were able to cultivate into saints and quasi-saints, it's all because of the protagonist's halo!"

Yu Xiao had seen many cultivators with Daoist partners, but none were as lovey-dovey as Yu Xuan'er and Bai Hongke. This couple was nothing like those old monsters who put everything aside in the face of the Great Dao of Immortality.

The system echoed Yu Xiao: "Yes, it's the protagonist's halo, which means that the protagonist can turn any crisis into an opportunity, but it is only effective before the story ends."

Yu Xiao, you are the new character in this world who is about to possess the protagonist's halo, as long as...

Yu Xiao understood, "Without the protagonist's halo, I might be killed by the person behind me or his accomplices."

[That's not how it works, host.] The system began its enticing persuasion, [You can bind to the system, complete the tasks assigned to you by the God, and thus change your destiny.]

Yu Xiao continued to lie there like a lazy bum, "I refuse. Completing the mission sounds exhausting, and besides, there's no such thing as a free lunch. You help me become the protagonist, but what price do I have to pay?"

The system didn't directly answer Yu Xiao's question, but continued to plead: "Host, if you refuse to complete the task, the system will punish you, and may even eliminate you!"

At this moment, Yu Xiao wiped her face with her small fish fins, transformed back into human form, and said with a half-smile on her ordinary face, "Then kill me."

If the system had the ability to kill, it should have taken action the moment the user refused to bind, or at least punished itself. But the system did not.

Therefore, Yu Xiao was almost certain that the system was nothing but a paper tiger, deceiving naive young people into signing unequal contracts with them.

Although he was only in his early twenties, he was practically a baby in the demon race.

The system fell silent.

It did try to inflict several different punishments on Yu Xiao, such as electric shocks, but these energies, once injected into Yu Xiao's body, caused no ripples whatsoever.

The system couldn't possibly tell Yu Xiao these things, otherwise wouldn't that embolden Yu Xiao to refuse to cooperate?

In reality, from the moment the system appeared in the underground river to the moment Yu Xiao refused to bind to the system, time only stopped for a moment.

A moment later, the ghostly figure attacked Yu Xiao once again!

Fortunately, Yu Xiao was much more agile in the water than on land. Sensing the attack from the fireman behind her, she used all her strength to dodge and barely managed to avoid it.

Knowing she had nowhere to run, Yu Xiao decided to cut to the chase, "Where is he?"

Yu Xiao has half fish demon blood, while the male Kun Ze is a cultivator, so the two can communicate underwater.

"She's dying." The humanoid figure, whose entire body was engulfed in eerie flames, had long since obscured Shuli's face. He was slowly approaching Yu Xiao, speaking in a sinister tone, "That little mad dog risked the lives of all my brothers."

He suddenly lunged forward, grabbed Yu Xiao by the neck and lifted her up. His face, melted by the flames, became even more distorted. "The Yin Flame cannot be extinguished by water. I will not survive, but if I let you go, I will not die in peace."

The fireman suddenly increased the pressure on her hand, and Yu Xiao's vision went black as she was pinched. She gritted her teeth to keep from crying out.

It is said that Kunze is weak, but that is only in comparison. If we compare Kunze as a cultivator with Qianyuan who cannot cultivate, then the latter is weaker and easier to bully.

The system was screaming wildly in Yu Xiao's mind, repeating the same words over and over again: "Bind me!"

Yu Xiao viewed the system as nothing.

At the end of her life, Yu Xiao, who appeared optimistic and cheerful to outsiders, actually harbored hatred towards his ethereal spiritual root constitution.

It was this ethereal root that gave me a glimpse of hope for cultivation, but it also isolated me from the Great Dao from birth, and made it impossible for me to live a peaceful life as a mortal!

As if in response to Yu Xiao's resentment, a stream of spiritual energy slowly condensed into substance in his usually empty dantian, and then flowed along his meridians.

A translucent object, resembling both a cone and a thorn, appeared in Yu Xiao's hand.

At this moment, Yu Xiao was almost suffocating and couldn't even see what that thing looked like. Realizing that he had a weapon in his hand, he immediately used all his strength to stab it into the top of the enemy's head.

Then, the enemy was blown into countless burning fragments!

Having survived the ordeal, Yu Xiao searched through the male Kunze's body parts for a long time but failed to find the mysterious weapon that killed him.

That thing seemed to be Yu Xiao's hallucination; it had never actually appeared.

So Yu Xiao gave up investigating the cause of Kunze's death, and suddenly threw herself against the stone wall, venting her emotions wildly in the deserted waterway, sometimes crying and sometimes laughing.

The handprint on his neck was very clear, which made Qian Yuan seem somewhat broken.

Yu Xiao was completely unaware of this. After he recovered, he covered the dark handprint with his hand and pressed down. It didn't hurt much, but it brought back the feeling of being on the verge of death. "Ha, damn protagonist's halo, I can still do it without it..."

Unlike Yu Xiao, the system, which had been shouting wildly, calmed down, its voice devoid of emotion: "If you live, someone else will die in your place."

Behind every lucky protagonist, there's always a bystander sacrificed; Ling Yue is one of them…

Yu Xiao: "Shut up."

Mentioning Ling Yue, Yu Xiao felt as if he had gained armor, and immediately regained his spirits. With a slight thought, he extinguished the Yin Flame, took off his outer robe and wrapped it around the ashes of the remains, and then began to swim back at a faster speed than when he came.

When Yu Xiao climbed ashore, he was almost tripped by Ling Yue.

Ling Yue had been supporting himself with his sword, kneeling amidst the corpses covered in sword marks, his gaze unfocused.

But as soon as Yu Xiaogang emerged from the water, the frail young man, weakened by his severe injuries, vanished.

Ling Yue's expression was stern. He used his severed arm to hold Yu Xiao and pressed her against the courtyard wall. He then put the index and middle fingers of his one-armed arm together and pointed them at Yu Xiao's throat.

Yu Xiao didn't dodge. After Ling Yue's sword-like fingers stopped, she pried his hand open and drew a simple fish in his palm. "It's me. We're both alive."

Ling Yue slapped Yu Xiao's hand away, his face darkening as he explored Yu Xiao's face, seemingly trying to trace her appearance using her skin, flesh, and bones.

Nothing matters more than life and death, so Yu Xiao waited patiently.

It took Ling Yue quite a while to confirm that the Yu Xiao in front of him was not someone else in disguise. Only then did he put Yu Xiao down and let out a long sigh of relief, "It's good that you're safe."

Ling Yue's mouth was open, but no sound came out when he "speaks".

Fortunately, Yu Xiao had often taken care of Ling Yue when he was deaf, mute, and blind, and had learned lip reading on her own, so she could understand what Ling Yue was "saying".

Seeing Ling Yue suffer a backlash from the Lone Star Sword Technique again, Yu Xiao's heart tightened, and she wrote again, "How many senses did you lose this time?"

Ling Yue made two swiping motions in Yu Xiao's palm.

Perhaps feeling that the number was too unrealistic, Ling Yue paused, then carefully added another stroke, "three."

Yu Xiao sighed and wrote again, "Four."

Seeing Ling Yue's head droop and his mood visibly downcast, Yu Xiao knew he had guessed correctly.

In this battle against the assassin of unknown origin, Ling Yue suffered a backlash due to intense emotional fluctuations, losing four of his five senses... This is a very serious injury for a cultivator.

The system promptly answered Yu Xiao's questions: [Regarding the backlash of the Lone Star Sword Technique, the original work has already provided a detailed description. Your father, Bai Hongke, fought a powerful enemy to the death to protect your mother, Yu Xuan'er, and lost all five senses. After recovering from his injuries, he was left with a serious chronic illness, which is why he is still stuck at the Quasi-Saint realm and unable to reach the threshold of becoming a Saint.]

Yu Xiao: "I remember, so even if Yueyue only lost four senses, it might still affect his future cultivation."

The system replied indifferently: [Who knows? But I see this young man's life force is beginning to dissipate. Forget cultivation, he's probably not far from death. I was going to be sentimental and inject some energy into him to keep him alive. Healing the backlash from a low-level cultivator is a piece of cake for the system, but unfortunately you…]

Clearly, the system was tempting Yu Xiao to make a deal with it.

However, Yu Xiao remained completely calm, clearly unmoved by the system.

Even a brief delay introduced new variables into the game.

...

A note from the author:

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